318 THE WORLD. 



belong to birds allied the Heron. Among the reptiles character- 

 istic of this deposit the most remarkable is the Iguanodon, so 

 called from the resemblance of its teeth to those of the Iguana, 

 a recent West Indian lizard. This gigantic suarian, or lizard, was 

 upwards of 70 feet in extreme length; the circumference of body 

 14 feet; length of tail 52 feet; and of the hind foot 6| feet. In 

 the British Museum, is a thigh bone of an Iguanodon, which is 3 

 feet in length, and eight inches in diameter. We cannot easily 

 conceive of a reptile of such hu^e dimensions; surpassing in 

 height the tallest elephants, and far greater in bulk than any 

 known living animal. A reptile of the same class, called the 

 HylfEosaurus, or lizard of the Weald, was likewise discovered by 

 Dr. Mantel]; in dimensions it was somewhat less than the igua- 

 nodon, and armed with a row of spiral protuberances, and scaly 

 plates. 



During the deposit of the chalk, a vast multitude of fishes 

 swarmed in the waters, among those were immense sharks, 

 whoso remains are plentifully found. How different the scenes 

 then enacted, both on land and in the sea, from now. While 

 upon the land, gigantic reptiles prowled through the dark woods, 

 or along the chalky shores, covered with alligators and turtles; 

 and the pterodactyle glided swiftly amid the dark foliage in pur- 

 suit of its prey ; the icthyosaur, the plesiosaur, and voracious 

 sharks roamed through the deep, devouring multitude 1 !! of smaller 

 animals. Upon the surface of .the waters, the nautilus and 

 ammonite still sailed, and the sea egg rolled over the smooth bot- 

 tom. Then, as now, the coral insect toiled on, and thousands of 

 encrinites waved their flexile stems in the heaving waters 

 Scenes like these, for ages, were witnessed upon the face of our 

 planet, but we cannot begin to estimate the lapse, not of years or 

 centuries, but of myriads, ere the change came which swept 

 them forever from among the living things of earth, entombing 

 them for memorials of those remote ages, which should 

 language too plain to be misunderstood, that many times, 

 the earth first commenced its revolution around the sun, changes 

 have passed over its surface which would bo more than sufficient 

 to sweep away every living thing which now moves upon it. 



